I have taken a tangent from my reading the book of Acts to show the 70 Weeks Prophecy ended with the stoning of Stephen. The Scriptures promised relative safety to the disciples during the 7 year period when Jesus confirmed the (New) Covenant during his public ministry (Daniel 9:27, cp. Revelation 12:6, 14) and finished up during the first 3 ½ years of the preaching of the apostles. At this time the blood of Jesus’ disciples began to run with the stoning of Stephen. Yet, Acts 8:1 shows that the apostles didn’t have to leave Jerusalem! Why was this? Notice:
Acts 8:1 KJV And Saul was consenting unto his (i.e. Stephen’s) death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.[emphasis and parenthesis mine]
The only reason I can see that the apostles didn’t have to leave Jerusalem is that when the murmuring began in Acts 6:1 among the Hellenistic Jewish believers the distribution of funds to the widows was merely the tip of the iceberg. The Palestinian Jewish believers were much more conservative for the tastes of the Jewish believers who grew up in the Diaspora. Stephen’s Gospel was preached first by Philip to the Samaritans and them by Paul to the gentiles. Stephen as much as said God doesn’t need the Temple to be worshiped nor is it necessary to become a Jew to be blessed by the Lord. At the very beginning of the 70th week of the 70 Weeks Prophecy, the Jewish authorities tried to kill Jesus for saying the same thing in his hometown of Nazareth. Jesus at that time offered himself as the Messiah, saying the “Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” and the time is fulfilled (Luke 4:16-21), but he was not believed (Luke 4:22). Jesus then chastised them saying if they didn’t believe the gentiles would! Notice:
Luke 4:24-29 KJV And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. (25) But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; (26) But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. (27) And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. (28) And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, (29) And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Both Sarepta and Naaman were gentiles. Because of unbelief in Israel, Elisha and Elijah blessed gentiles in the name of the Lord. Jesus warned of this at the beginning of his ministry, and Stephen warned it would occur at the end of the 70th week of Daniel’s prophecy. The New Covenant was confirmed with the blood of Christ at the end of the 1260 days; and the blood of the Body of Christ began shedding its blood in the name of Christ at the end of the prophetic week or culmination of the 1290 days with the stoning of Stephen.
So, what about the apostles? Well, their blood would be shed, as well, but they were not the targets of the unbelieving Jews at this time. The apostles were more conservative, and necessarily so. Jesus sent them to the Jews. Their customs didn’t alarm the unbelieving authorities. They may have been a thorn in their side at times, but nothing could be said against them to warrant killing them, but the Hellenistic Jewish disciples were more liberal in their thinking, saying people other than Jews were acceptable to God. No one knew where such thinking would lead, so efforts were made to stamp out the new idea. Nevertheless, God was with the disciples who were scattered abroad, and they preached the Gospel everywhere they went. Praise God!
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